The top reported proficiency rate is 87% in Science. The lowest is 78% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Ella Baker Elementary School
Ella Baker Elementary School, a regular public school serving kindergarten through fifth grade in the Lake Washington School District, sits in a residential pocket of Redmond known as Education Hill. That neighborhood earned its name from the cluster of schools there, and Ella Baker is part of that pattern: a neighborhood elementary serving families who live nearby. The school is named for the civil rights activist, a choice that signals something about the district's values, though the curriculum itself is not described differently because of it.
Redmond is not a small town; it is a major employment hub, home to Microsoft's global headquarters and a significant presence for Nintendo of America and Meta. Roughly three-quarters of the people who work in Redmond commute in from other cities, so the school's attendance zone draws from a mix of families who live close to the tech campuses and those who settled in the quieter, more residential parts of town. The city has two urban centers—downtown and Overlake—and Education Hill sits above downtown, a largely residential area that feels removed from the commercial core. Housing here is expensive; values across the zip code are well above national norms, and rentals are also high, putting homeownership out of reach for many. The school reflects the area's economic profile in that only a modest share of its students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, a group that makes up a noticeable but not dominant portion of the enrollment.
Academically, Ella Baker posts strong results. On the state's Smarter Balanced assessments in English language arts and math, the school's students across grades three through five consistently hit proficiency rates that place the school among the top performers compared with other elementary schools in King County. The scores climb as students move up: fifth graders post higher rates than third graders, and the fifth grade science results are similarly high. The school appears to be building academic momentum through the elementary years, and the overall proficiency index lands it in the top quartile of schools in the county. This is a school where most students are meeting or exceeding state standards, and by fifth grade the vast majority are.
Enrollment is robust, with each grade from kindergarten through fifth well populated, and the student body is notably diverse in background. Asian students make up the largest share, followed by white students, with a smaller but still present Hispanic population and a small number of Black and multiracial students. The data available did not include counts of students with disabilities or English learners, so the level of special education and language support services is not possible to characterize from this record. That is a gap a parent may want to explore directly with the school.
The school building sits on Eastridge Drive, a residential street of single-family homes that border a greenbelt corridor. The Sammamish River Trail and Marymoor Park are a short distance away, offering recreational amenities that families in the neighborhood use. Light rail reached Redmond in 2024 and 2025, connecting the Overlake and downtown areas to Bellevue and Seattle, but Education Hill remains a car-oriented neighborhood.
The Lake Washington School District, which also includes Redmond's middle and high schools, did not have any recent major changes surfaced in the search, so there is no referendum, boundary shift, or curriculum overhaul to note. Families who choose Ella Baker are picking a strong-performing elementary in an expensive, tech-driven suburb, where most students are meeting academic benchmarks and the peer environment is shaped by a large Asian plurality and a relatively small low-income population. It fits a family that can afford the neighborhood and wants a school that starts strong academically and keeps building through the elementary years.
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